a new family
by nikki003
Summary: Rita and the girls take in another abandoned mermaid who has been left alone to fend for herself.
1. Chapter 1

Ava was swimming alone in the ocean. She hadn't seen her mom in almost a week. At nine years old she wasn't sure how much longer she could fare by herself. She caught glimpses of other mermaids in the water, but was never able follow them; they were too fast for her. Ava had never belonged to a pod and hadn't seen a lot of other mermaids before.

Ava's mom was cast out of her pod when she fell in love with a human and had a baby girl with him. The boy left Ava's mother when he learned the truth of who she really was and she was left alone to raise her baby girl. Since Ava was half human and half mermaid, she was able to change into a human when she was dry and back into a mermaid when she was wet. Ava never fully belonged in either world.

Her mom had left her about a week ago, searching the water for a pod she had heard about nearby. Ava was left because she couldn't swim fast enough to keep up with her mom. She was afraid being by herself for so long though. She kept feeling like she saw a merman, but her mother told her there were no mermen anymore.

Out of the corner of her eye Ava caught a glimmer of orange and pink. She turned quickly and saw the unmistakable sight of a mermaid's tail. She hid, not wanting to scare the mermaid off. She hoped that if she followed the mermaid she would find the pod her mom was talking about. The mermaid was young, with blond hair and had a carefree way about her.

She began swimming off collecting seashells she found on the ocean floor. Ava followed swiftly and quietly behind her. The mermaid swam into what looked like a hidden cave entrance. Ava waited a few moments before following her in. She hoped more than anything her mother would be inside, but she waited outside to collect herself and to stuff her hopes down inside of her.

She entered the cave and the first thing she noticed was that her mother was not there. But neither was the other mermaid, in fact she was alone in the cave. She looked around and noticed a staircase, something she recognized from the land world. She heard voices coming from the staircase and her curiosity got the best of her and she pulled herself out of the water and onto the land.

Once her tail dried her legs appeared. She stood up and began walking up the stairs. She followed the voices into another room that was just off the stairwell. The room was filled with lots of mermaid things, it was beautiful, and the little nine year old stood awe struck. She saw four older girls looking at her, one of which was the mermaid she saw earlier. Ava broke down crying, "I want my mom" she sobbed.


	2. Chapter 2

Rita ran over and embraced the little girl. Ava clung onto Rita and buried her head into her shoulder. Nixie, Serena, and Lyla crowded around the girl attempting to comfort her. They guided her over to the ledge and sat her down. "Sweetie what's going on?" Rita asked. Ava paused for a moment, how could she know that she could trust them? She saw the moon ring on Rita's and Serena's fingers it was the same as the one her mother had. She knew then that she could tell them and told them everything.

Rita took Ava upstairs into the main part of the house and fixed her some food. The girls headed down the café where Serena was meeting David to sing. Ava was so hungry she stuffed the food into her face and ate every last thing off her plate. Rita smiled at her, "when was the last time you ate?"

"It's been a few days I think."

Rita sat down next to her at the table. "Honey, I'm afraid that I have some bad news." Ava looked up at her with her bright blue eyes, fearing what Rita would say next. "I'm not sure that your mother will be coming back. A number of things could have happened to her, but it's really unusual that a mermaid would come back after a week. She would have been able to get almost anywhere and back by now."

Ava nodded, she already knew this much. "She left me to join another pod didn't she?"

"What makes you think that?"

"She always blamed me for the fact that she lost her family. Told me I wasn't worth all of the loss and that she would be able to join a new pod if she didn't have me." Rita just nodded, this was a possibility that she had considered and Ava just about confirmed it.

Rita pulled the girl onto her lap and Ava put her arms around Rita's neck and rested her head on her shoulders. "Honey you can stay here, for the time being until we find a place for you okay?" Ava nodded.


	3. Chapter 3

The older girls had taken Ava back to the moon pool with them to sleep. The other girls had fallen asleep but Ava hadn't. She was trying not to cry and wake everybody up. She wanted her mom back, she wanted her mom to not have left her. She tried waking up Lyla, she had been kind to her earlier, but barely woke up to comfort her.

The moon pool gave off a faint glow, something she liked a lot. But being the only one awake made her feel afraid none the less. She left the moon pool and the water was dark. It took a few minutes for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. She felt a tightness in her chest, feeling like something bad was going to happen. She felt like she swam faster than she ever had before. Ava came up out of the water in Rita's house, she pulled herself onto the land and waited until her legs appeared.

Rita woke up in her bed. It took a few moments for her eyes to make out a figure standing next to her bed staring down at her. _What the… _ the figure steeped closer to her and she could see that it was Ava. "Rita" Ava choked out, "can I sleep here? Please." She begged. Rita slid over to the over side of the bed and patted the part she was just in, inviting Ava to lay down. She got into the bed and curled up under the covers, "Thank you" Rita heard Ava whisper before she fell back to sleep.

When Rita woke up the next morning she was the only one in her bed. She lay staring at her ceiling for a few minutes trying to remember if the events during the night had happened or if they had just been a dream. She was sure that it had happened but wasn't sure where Ava had gone. She got up and got dressed preparing herself for her morning swim.

On her way down the stairs to her own private cave, she heard noise coming from her mermaid room. She peaked in and there was Ava. She was looking through all her stuff, examining her shells and running her fingers over the treasure chest. "Well good morning" Rita said folding her arms over her chest and smiling. Ava was startled, but her deer in the head lights look faded into a sheepish grin.

Ava shrugged, "You have so many beautiful things, I've never seen them before."

"You've never seen them before?"

"No, my mom and I spent half our time on land and when we were in the water she never…well she never taught me or showed me these things."

Rita held out her hand to Ava who walked over and took it tentatively. Rita led Ava over to the pool, "why don't you join me for a swim, maybe we can find you some shells of your own." Ava's face brightened and she had a huge grin on her face. She nodded enthusiastically. She held onto Rita's hand as they both jumped into the water.


	4. Chapter 4

Ava and Rita sat on the floor of the mermaid room looking at the shells that Ava had collected. Rita showed Ava the special parts of each shell, their names and their uses. "Is this what you did with your pod?" Ava asked.

Rita nodded, "Yea, we learned it in mermaid school."

"Rita, can I ask you something?"

"Of course you can" Rita answered, she smiled at Ava expecting a question about the shells.

"where's your pod?" Rita was clearly caught off guard by the question. She searched for the right words. Ava could see that she had upset Rita, she put her eyes on the floor, she didn't want to be in trouble.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked."

"No it's okay." Rita reached out to Ava touching her forearm to reassure her. "I had to leave my pod when I decided to marry a land boy."

"…and you can't go back?"

"No, I've been cast out like Lyla, Nixie, and Serena have been."

"Kind of like me too?"

"Yes like you" Rita's voice trailed off.

"What happened to the land boy?"

"He died before we got the chance to get married."

"So you don't have a family anymore either."

"No..No I don't have a family either." Ava got up and carried her shells over to a shelf with a bunch of Rita's shells. She began to place hers with Rita's. "Why don't we find a special place just for your shells?"

"I'd like that" Ava said smiling. Rita cleared a space just for Ava's shells to go and she watched as Ava carefully placed her shells down, almost strategically.

"Sometimes," Ava started, not daring to look at Rita, "I wonder why my mom couldn't ever love me enough. I wonder why her pod couldn't love her enough to take her back after my father left her, and me too." She turned to look at Rita, "I don't understand either, how your pod could love you one minute and abandon you for falling in love and then leave you all alone when he died." Ava paused, she looked at Rita hoping for an answer, but she got none. "Sometimes, I don't think that love exists."

Rita moved to stand in front Ava and kneeled in front of her so that they were at the same eye level. Rita held onto Ava's shoulders, "Love is absolutely real. It is, I promise." She embraced the little girl and held her tight.


	5. Chapter 5

Ava made it a nightly ritual to swim back with the older girls to the moon pool. She enjoyed listening to them talk and liked that the older girls let her hang out with them there. They taught her things about the pool, Lyla taught her about the other creatures in the ocean, Serena taught her mermaid songs, and Nixie, well she mostly showed Ava how to get into trouble. When they all fell asleep she would swim back and crawl into bed with Rita.

Sleeping with Rita made her feel safe, something she hadn't felt in a long time. She always made sure to be up before Rita so that she wouldn't bother her. Ava also loved looking at all of Rita's mermaid things, her mother had never had such things. She often sat in the room and imagined the new mermaid things her mother might have now with her new pod. It had been a little over a mouth since the last time she saw her.

One of the older girls was usually tasked with having to keep an eye on Ava during the day. But on this particular day Ava asked Rita if she would be allowed to go to work with her instead. She loved hanging out with the older girls but knew that they were growing tired of her. They usually just left her at home by herself anyway.

"Please Rita, can I go?"

"Why do you want to come with me? It's not that much fun."

"It sounds like fun to me" Ava answered with a devilish smile.

"Oh alright you can come, but you have to be behaved!" Ava nodded her head in understanding.

Rita was the principle of a land school. Ava had been to land school before when she was little. A few years ago her and her mother had tried to live on land for a while. Her mother decided that they were never going to have family and friends in the sea so they moved to the land. But her mother missed the ocean too much and after a year the disappeared back into the ocean.

Rita sat down at her desk and began working on her computer. Ava knew what it was and had seen them before but wasn't quite sure how they worked. Rita noticed her watching her and motioned for her to come over. Ava sat down on Rita's lap to see what she was doing. Rita worked on the computer and fielded calls, Ava sat on her lap quietly leaning against Rita's chest. She was enjoying the attention and closeness she got from Rita. Unbeknownst to her, Rita enjoyed having her there too.

Zac suddenly walked into the office, interrupting the quite. "Principle Santos may I speak to you for a moment." He looked at Ava, "Privately" he added.

Ava got up and went outside the office. She walked along the hall checking out the lockers and watching the older kids. She saw Cam and she waved at him excited. Cam saw her and smiled, he walked over to her. "Hey kiddo," he said, "what are you doing here?"

"I came to work with Aunt Rita." Cam knew that Rita wasn't really her Aunt but Ava liked to pretend they were all family anyway. Cam knew this about her.

"You know they're not really your family, right?" Cam said. "I really like you Ava, me and you are buddies. I'd really hate to see you get hurt when they leave you."

"Leave me, why would they leave me?"

"Well you know the girls want to go back to their pod and Rita didn't even want them to stay and now she's stuck with you too. When they leave she'll probably want you to leave too."

"She didn't want us here?" Ava asked, she was a little confused and trying to fight back tears.

"No, she didn't want the older girls here and they basically take care of themselves. She sees you as a burden. I'm not trying to be mean, the girls told me that, I'm just trying to be your friend and warn you." Ava nodded at nine years old she wasn't wise enough to know that Cam was just being a jerk.

The door to Rita's office opened and Zac walked out. He patted Ava's back and gave her a friendly smile as he walked away with Cam. Ava stood out in the hallway. She finally felt like she had a family, she had thought that maybe Rita had wanted her, maybe the girls would all be like her sisters and that in some way they had formed their own pod. But it was just the way it had always been, she felt unloved and unwanted.


	6. Chapter 6

She had finished out the rest of the day with Rita from a distance. She went through the motions of the rest of the day, thinking over what Cam had told her. She was so heartbroken she was afraid that if she spoke she might start crying instead and she didn't want to look dumb in front of the bigger girls. She had come to love the girls and Rita that she didn't want to make them unhappy. So she made up her mind that it was time for her to leave.

The girls were getting ready to swim back to the moon pool. "wait!" Ava said, "I forgot to say good bye to Rita. I'll be right back."

"Okay hurry though" Lyla shouted after her.

"I will" Ava's voice echoed down the stairwell. Ava found Rita in her living room and ran into her almost at a full run. She was out of breath from running up all the stairs. She threw her arms around Rita in a hug. "I forgot to say bye to you!" Ava said. Rita smiled, thinking she was going to be seeing Ava again in a few hours.

"well we can't have that now can we." She said jokingly as she hugged Ava back.

Ava pulled back from Rita and looked her in the eyes. "I love you." She said, her voice suddenly small. Rita choked up, she loved Ava too but couldn't make the words come out. Instead she just hugged her tight and kissed her forehead. She watched as Ava ran back down the hall to leave for the moon pool. She smiled when she was alone, realizing that she hadn't been this happy in a long time, she loved the girls all the girls. But she held a special spot in her heart for Ava. Perhaps she knew the other girls would leave her soon and couldn't get as close to them, but she had plans to ask Ava to stay with her and for this to be their home. She had secretly been decorating a room just for Ava so she could have her own space in her new house.

But when Ava left, she was disheartened. She had wanted Rita to tell her she loved her too and for Cam to be wrong. But when she didn't say anything she knew Cam had been right and that Rita didn't want her. She swam back with the older girls to the moon pool. They all joked and laughed before falling asleep. But unlike every other night, when Ava left she didn't swim back to Rita's. She swam out into the ocean trying to get as far away as she could. She wanted to leave behind all the hurt she felt, she wanted to put as much distance as she could between her and the other family who couldn't love her.


	7. Chapter 7

When Rita woke up the next morning she smiled to herself. Today was the day she and the girls had been planning for almost two weeks. Ava's room would be finished today, she would pick up the cake after work, and they would all surprise Ava. Rita couldn't wait to ask the little girl, who she now thought of as a daughter, to join her family forever.

She looked to the other side of the bed, expecting to see it messed up from being slept in by Ava, but instead it was neat and still made. She didn't think much of it, just figured she had decided to sleep with the girls. She got dressed and headed downstairs to the pool for her morning swim. When she passed the mermaid room, Ava wasn't in it. She was in there almost every morning playing with her collection of shells. Rita's worry was growing, but pushed the thoughts aside and continued with her morning swim.

When Rita returned from her swim, Ava still wasn't in the mermaid room. She hurried upstairs and was relieved when she saw Nixie, Lyla, and Serena, Ava was probably with them. "Hey girls!" Rita called out.

"Morning Rita" Serena answered back.

"Have any of you girls seen Ava?"

"She swam back to the moon pool with us," said Lyla, "but we haven't seen her since last night. Have you guys?" The other two girls shook their heads.

"That's what I was afraid of. I haven't seen her all morning and that's very unusual."

"Don't worry so much Rita, she's probably just out collecting shells." Nixie said.

"Hey check this out." Serena said holding up and shell that had a carving of five mermaids on it. "I made it to go in Ava's room, it has all of us on it!" Lyla and Nixie admired the carving.

"That's very beautiful." Rita told her. "Could you girls maybe go out and see if you can find her? She's too young to be alone out there herself for so long."

"Sure Rita no problem" Lyla told her. Rita thanked the girls and headed out for work.

The first place the girls check was the moon pool, but Ava wasn't there. They looked in all of her favorite spots in the ocean and all the places good for collecting shells. Still there was no sign of her. They decided to look on land. "Perhaps she's at the Café." Suggested Serena.

"You just want to see David." Teased Nixie.

"Well it couldn't hurt to look." Lyla chimed in. The three headed over there. It was about lunch time and some of the local students had stopped in for lunch. David was almost always there for lunch and Serena went to go talk to him. Lyla spotted Zac and Cam and she steered Nixie over to their table. "Hey Zac," Lyla said, "You haven't seen Ava today have you?"

Zac shook his head, "No I haven't seen her today why?"

"We haven't seen her all day and Rita's getting worried. At this point so am I."

"No sorry I haven't." Zac turned to Cam, "Have you?"

"Nope me either." Cam said a little too quickly.

"What are you hiding?" Nixie asked, she could see that Cam knew something.


	8. Chapter 8

The girls burst into Rita's office. She was talking with another teacher but when she saw the distraught look on the girls faces, she asked to continue the conversation later. "Girls, is everything all right."

"She's gone" blurt out Lyla

"What who's go-" Rita sat down in her office chair, suddenly realizing who they were talking about. Had Ava been hurt while swimming from the moon pool back to her place alone at night? She knew she shouldn't have kept letting her swim by herself like that. But she didn't want to give the young mermaid too many boundaries after all she had previously though the situation was only temporary.

Lyla interrupted her thoughts, "Cam was playing some stupid joke on her and now she's run away."

"What joke?"

"Cam told Ava that we didn't want her here and that we were going to get rid of her and that she would be without a family again. He thought she knew he was joking he was trying to throw her off about the surprise we had for her or something. But she thought he was serious and apparently left because she didn't want to burden you."

"Burden me? Oh no, she was anything but a burden." Rita said mostly talking to herself. She all of a sudden felt as though she had been punched in the gut. "We have to find her, it's dangerous for a young mermaid to be out there alone, especially Ava who knows so little about the sea." Rita regretted now not taking the time to teach her more.

"How are we going to find her?" Serena asked, "the ocean is so big, I don't know where to start."

"I don't know, but we will. I think we can find her with our moon rings, I have it in a book back home."

Rita ducked out of work early and the four of them headed back to the house. In the mermaid room, Rita looked up some information in a book and passed out the moon rings. The four of them put their first together. "Think about Ava," she instructed, "Will the ring to show her to you. Focus now."

An image appeared above the rings. It was Ava, she was on land somewhere. Her face looked frightened and she was dirty. There was a hand that held her arm tightly and was pulling her through a crowd. Ava kept trying to pull away but wasn't strong enough. "Rita I'm sorry" She cried, "I want to go home.." the image disappeared and Rita's heart broke.


	9. Chapter 9

Ava felt like she had been swimming for a very long time. She was getting tired but she didn't want to stop. She hadn't thought out her plan much more than this. She hoped maybe she could find a new pod, but mermaids were so careful and so fast, she doubted that she would be able to find one. Even if she did, she wasn't sure she would be accepted by one. Her mother always told her that she would never belong because she was half a land person.

She decided to try and find land, maybe she could find a place to fit in there. After all, land people didn't know about mermaids. She kept swimming, heading in the direction she thought she could find land. Rita had taught her some tricks to finding her way, she used what Rita had taught her to find her way to the land.

By the time she made it to land the sun had come up. Ava crawled onto the beach, unsure of where she had swam too. She pulled herself up out of the water's reach and waited for her tail to dry. She had never stayed up all night before and she felt exhausted. Feeling safer in the sunlight, she fell asleep on the sandy beach. She hadn't intended to fall asleep on the beach, she just couldn't stay awake any longer.

When she woke up there was a man standing above her. She knew that she hadn't been asleep for more than a few hours, but she couldn't be sure. The man smiled at her when he saw that she was awake. Ava was frightened, her first thought was that the man knew her secret. He knew that she had run away or he knew that she was a mermaid. The man extended his hand down towards her. Slowly and tentatively Ava took his hand and allowed him to help her up.

"Hey there kiddo." The man said to her, "How long have you been out here?" Ava looked at him too frightened to answer. "You look hungry would you like something to eat?" the man looked kind and she was hungry, she slowly nodded her head, and relaxed a little as she decided to trust him. He smiled at her showing his white teeth; Ava thought he had a nice smile.

She followed him to a nearby restaurant that over looked the sea. It looked a lot like the café back near Rita. Except it was a lot more family friendly and slightly bigger than the one they had. Ava ordered some crabs to eat, they were her favorite, the man ordered clams. He was even nice enough to let her have one. She was really starting to relax and trust the man. "Where are we?" Ava finally asked, something she had been wondering since she landed on the beach.

"Australia" the man replied, "Sydney."

"How far are we from Mako?"

"About a three days drive."

Ava nodded satisfied with the distance she was able to travel. She finished her meal making small talk with the man she learned was named Alex. Alex had been looking for sharks teeth on the beach when he found her. He told her that she reminded him of his own daughter and wanted to help her. His daughter didn't live with him and he missed her a lot. Ava had never had a father and fantasized that Alex was her father. Little did she know this was exactly what Alex wanted her to think. He had a skill for being able to pick out venerable children.

When they finished eating the pair took a walk down the board walk. Ava was enjoying the time she was spending with Alex. When he reached down to hold her hand she lit up, once again feeling like she may have found family. People told Alex how adorable his daughter was and Ava loved the attention she was receiving. She confided in Alex that she had run away and didn't have any family. That's when Alex invited her to come with him.

"You can sleep in my daughter's room. She won't mind, it'll almost be like you two are sisters." Ava liked this idea and readily agreed. She was so desperate for attention and love she didn't have to think twice about going with Alex. But when he hugged her she felt him reach down and touch her. It made her feel uncomfortable but she didn't know if it was normal. When Ava didn't pull away Alex caressed her a little more and Ava finally pulled away from him.

Alex held her and she couldn't get away from him. "Let go of me!" Ava cried. She was struggling against him, but the more she struggles the more he hurt her. "Please let me go!" She begged. Alex smiled, but this time it scared her. He began pulling her through the crowd, Ava was pulling trying to get away from him, crying out for help from people around her.

"It's okay," Alex would tell people, "My daughter is having a tantrum."

When nobody would help her she finally stopped crying out and allowed herself to be dragged behind Alex. She would just wait for a chance to use her powers and escape. "Rita I'm sorry" She cried, "I want to go home…"


	10. Chapter 10

Rita buried her head in her hands. What was she going to do? She lifted her hands and looked at each of the three girls standing in front of her, they were looking to her to know what to do. She wiped the tears off her face and swallowed hard. She stood up taking a deep breathe, making sure the lump in her throat was gone, "We have to find her."

"But how?" asked Serena.

"I don't know exactly," Rita admitted, "but we will. We can't leave her, she's in trouble."

"but she left us remember?" Nixie said, "Maybe she's just fine, we could all be worrying for nothing."

Rita looked down at her hands, carefully choosing her words. "She's family Nixie, you don't leave family and I need to find her so that I can tell her that." Nixie nodded, understanding, she felt that they had all become a family too. "Okay now," Rita clapped her hands together, "let's start looking shall we?" She placed a big book in front of them. It took the girls a few moments to realize Rita meant looking in the book. When they caught up, they all took turns looking through the large book for an answer, some way to help them locate Ava.

"Nothing," Lyla announced as she flipped over the last page in the book, "it doesn't tell us how we can locate a mermaid or a land person."

"Maybe we just have to start looking." Nixie suggested.

"I guess that maybe we can ask if anybody has seen her." Serena suggested. Nobody found this to be a particularly efficient idea but since nobody had a better one, they decided that it was worth a try. Lyla swam down to the café to find Zac to help them. Zac readily agreed to help and they both quickly swam back to Rita's.

Rita handed out shells to each of the girls and Zac, the shells were special, they could be blown and alert the others if they found anything important or if they got into trouble. They were to all split up so that they could cover the most ground.

One by one they each jumped into the water and began searching. But, before Lyla could jump in Zac grabbed her hand. They were the only two left standing by Rita's pool, Zac had planned this so he could talk to Lyla.

"I don't want you going by yourself." He told her.

"I'm fine," Lyla said inserting her independence, "We need to cover as much ground as we can." She moved to jump into the pool but Zac once again grabbed her and held her back.

"No Lyla not this time, we're going to stay together, I want to make sure nothing happens to you. We don't know what happened to Ava, something or someone could have grabbed her." Lyla sighed, she knew Zac wasn't going to give this up. She agreed to searching together, they held hands as they jumped in.


	11. Chapter 11

Rita swam close to the ocean floor looking for some sort of clue. She had no idea what she was looking for and she doubted that she would find anything, but for some reason she felt compelled to look anyway. She asked passing dolphins if they had seen a young mermaid, but none of them had. She would begin to feel disappointed and like looking was hopeless, but she would remind herself that Ava needed her to not give up and she would continue to look.

She was searching the ocean floor when she heard the sound of someone blowing their shell. She swam as fast as she could towards the noise, it was Serena. Nixie was already there and Lyla and Zac arrived together. Nixie gave them a strange look but Rita prompted Serena to share what she had found before Nixie could ask questions. Serena pointed to a dolphin, "she says she saw a little mermaid last night alone. She said she was upset and was heading that way." Serena pointed off into the vast ocean. It was a good lead and Rita was excited to have it but felt disappointed that there still wasn't much to go on.

"alright," Rita sighed, "let's start heading in that direction." She felt just as hopeless as everybody else but knew it was her job to keep the others spirits up. They began heading off in the direction Serena told them, Rita noticed Zac and Lyla holding hands as they searched the ocean. She saw Serena and Nixie notice too and the exchanged glances. She hoped Lyla knew what she was doing, Zac was dating Evie. She made a mental note to talk to Lyla after this nightmare was over.

Rita was able to find another dolphin that had possibly seen Ava. He described a young mermaid swimming around at night who was upset. He said the little one had been crying and whispering something about her mother. Rita closed her eyes for a moment to compose herself as she suddenly felt the urge to cry but she didn't want to cry in front of the girls. She thanked the dolphin and he swam off. She motioned for the others to follow her.

Not too long later they hit land. Rita wanted to turn around and try again but it was Zac who insisted on searching the land. "It can't hurt too look." He said, "Someone must have seen her if she came up on land, a nine year old would attract attention by herself on land it won't take much time."

"I agree," Lyla said," She seems to feel very comfortable on land anyway." The group agreed and decided to look on the land. They crawled onto the land and waited for their tails to dry. The stood out and took some time to check out the beach they had landed on. Serena noticed a restaurant off in the distance and the group began making their way towards it. As the got closer they noticed a lot of similarities between the Café and this restaurant.

The café here was called the Sydney sizzler. "where's Sydney?" Asked Nixie.

"It's a few hours north of Mako." Answered Zac

Rita went up to a waitress that was cleaning off a table. "Have you seen a young girl here, she would have blond hair and brown eyes. She's nine years old?"

The waitress thought for a moment, "Yeah I think so, she was here earlier this morning with her father."

Her father?


	12. Chapter 12

Ava was thrown onto a couch. The man walked back to the front door and locked it. Ava was so frightened she couldn't move. He walked back and sat next to her on the couch. "I don't want to be mean to you." He said stroking Ava's cheek, "But you made me do that. I want us to have a good relationship, so you need to behave for now on so I don't have to hurt you anymore." Ava's arm throbbed where he had been holding her, she looked down and noticed a bruise starting to form.

Alex leaned over and kissed Ava's forehead. He gave her a smile that made him look like a nice person, the reason Ava had trusted him in the first place. She was so afraid that she was shaking, Alex pretended not to notice. He got up and walked into the kitchen. The kitchen was visible from Ava's spot on the couch. A breakfast bar separated the kitchen from the living room, which gave it a feeling of continuation. "Are you thirsty?" Alex called to her.

"No." Ava replied, her voice was barely audible. Alex returned with a drink for her anyway. He popped the top off the drink and handed it to her. She had never seen a drink like this. She looked over at Alex who was waiting for her to drink it. She put the bottle to her lips and took a sip. The taste shocked her, it was bitter and strong. It made her cough and she struggled to swallow it. Alex chuckled, she took a long slow drink from his bottle.

"Drink up." He instructed, lifting the bottle back to her lips. She didn't want to, it didn't taste good, but she didn't want Alex to hurt her, so she choked down the liquid. When she finished the bottle she was feeling dizzy. She handed the bottle back to Alex who rubbed her back, clearly pleased. She was sweating, she felt hot and nauseas. The room was spinning; she leaned over putting her head between her knees. She knew it was the drink Alex had given her that was making her sick.

"Do you need to lay down?" He asked, Ava nodded. Alex led her into a bedroom and put her on the bed. "It can be hard to hold your liquor at first but it will get better." He put his hand on her forehead, feeling to see if she was hot. He mom had done this before when she was sick. "Poor baby." He whispered, pulling a blanket over her. Ava rolled over on her side and pulled her knees to her chest. Alex began to rub her back, it felt good and she was feeling sleepy. She didn't want to fall asleep, she needed to stay awake. But her eyes felt so heavy and she couldn't keep them open.


	13. Chapter 13

Rita was reeling, her gut told her Ava was in trouble and they needed to find her fast. It was late afternoon and the sun was getting ready to set. Rita could tell that it was everyone's mind that they needed to keep searching and find Ava tonight. "Let's use our moon rings again." Serena suggested.

"Not out here in the open," Nixie said, "let's go into the bathroom."

"Sorry Zac." Lyla said letting her fingers brush his hand lightly. The group walked into the bathroom and like they did before they put their rings together and focused on what they wanted the rings to show them. This time they saw Ava on a couch with the man she was with earlier, he raised a bottle of beer to her lips making her drink. She was uncomfortable but did as she was told. The image went fuzzy and vanished.

"Great," Nixie complained, "that didn't help." Serena swallowed hard, she was beginning to understand the kind of trouble Ava had fallen into. The girls looked at each other, they all saw the same concern reflected in each other's eyes. Even Nixie let her guard down momentarily and exchanged a look of concern. Then they turned to Rita hoping she would know what to do.

Rita was struggling to keep her emotions in check. Living the life of a mermaid had been simple. The pod stayed together, everybody had looked out for each other, and there were few dangers young mermaids could get themselves into. She felt out of her element, even though she lived the life of a human she had not come accustomed to all the problems they had on land.

She thought for a moment, separating herself from the situation. She knew if she put too much thought into what she had just seen that she would fall apart. "Do it again girls," she instructed, "but this time will the rings to show you a way to find her. Think about where she has been, think about the rings showing you the outside of the building she is in." Rita didn't know if this would work. It may not be specific enough for the moon rings and the girls thoughts and wills could be so different they may not be able to control the power.

The girls were a little apprehensive as well, Rita's instructions were so vague, but they could see how upset she was and didn't question her. They put their rings together and focused on trying to see where Ava had been. One thing all stuck in their minds and that was what Rita had said about seeing the outside of the building. By sheer luck, that's what they all thought about and what they tried to will the rings to show them.

An image appeared above them. The man was leading Ava into a house. It was earlier in the day, as it seemed much brighter and they could hear the birds. They knew they must be seeing what happened earlier in the day. Ava wasn't resisting much and followed the man with reluctance. The outside of the house had a lawn covered in white stones instead of grass and the drive way was lined with bushes. The house was made out of what looked like brown bricks. They walked up to a white door with the number 631engraved on it in gold. Behind Ava on the other side of the street from the house they were able to see a board walk. Ava and the man walked into the house and the image disappeared.

Rita was smiling, at last they had something to go on. She walked out of the bathroom with the girls following behind her. Zac was waiting right outside the door and he could tell by their faces that it was good news. Lyla filled him in on what they had seen. Zac took her hand again, "I don't want to lose you." He said to her, "I'm afraid something might happen to you when we find this guy, he sounds dangerous."

"I'm a big girl." Lyla said, but she was smiling and didn't pull her hand away. Nixie and Serena just rolled their eyes.

"I hope she knows what she's doing." Serena whispered to Nixie. She nodded in agreement. Rita was too preoccupied to pay attention as she was walking outside the café and scouting out the board walk. When she spotted it she called the girls and Zac over and she took off down the board walk. They all began looking for a house with brown bricks and a lawn covered in white stones. They found a couple of houses that fit the description but when they would walk up to the door, it wasn't 631.

"There!" Serena shouted, pointing out a brown stone house, with white stones for a lawn, a white door, and a driveway lined with bushes. The group practically ran up to the door. It was white with gold numbers, 631.


	14. Chapter 14

Zac was about to knock on the door, but thought twice about it and pulled his hand back. "We can't just knock on the door, can we?"

"I don't know, what else could we do?" Nixie asked

"Knocking would be the polite thing." Serena said

"Polite, I think it's a little late for polite." Nixie snorted

"Maybe we should-" Zac started but he was cut off by Rita who used her powers to knock the door down.

"Nixie was right," she said, "It's too late for polite." She walked past everyone and over the door to get into the house. A man came running when he heard the door being blown down.

"What the-" he said. When he saw Rita he walked up to her and grabbed her arm. "Look lady I don't know what kind of stunt you and these kids are pulling but you better get the hell outta my house before I get my gun." The way he was holding her made her think about how he had held Ava and dragged her into this house. How he had forced her to drink alcohol and done God knows what. Her anger boiled over and she raised her hand and blew the man across the room.

He went flying and hit the wall next to the couch. The air had been knocked out of him and he felt shooting pain in his back. But more than it hurt he was afraid to move. He was afraid that these people were aliens, or witches, or something else. He also felt that he may have had too much to drink, he wasn't sure but she didn't want to take any chances either. He stayed laying on the floor as the woman who had thrown him across the room began searching his house.

Rita instructed Zac and the girls to stay put, their only job was to make sure the man stayed down. "Oh I think we can do more than that." Zac said to the girls. Rita heard him but pretended that she didn't. She began looking through the house calling out for Ava. She was opening doors and checking rooms, she knew Ava had to be here. Finally, she found the right room and when she threw open the door she found Ava asleep on the bed.

"Oh my god," Rita whispered in relief, "thank the lord." She went over to Ava, her anger and panic were gone and replaced instead with an overwhelming need to cry after all the stress she felt during the day.


	15. Chapter 15

Ava felt somebody gentle shaking her. She felt groggy and her head was in a fog. She didn't want to open her eyes, she just wanted to go back to sleep. She started to remember Alex and instantly became alert, fearful it was him waking her up. But when she opened her eyes she saw Rita. At first she wasn't sure that Rita was really there, but when Rita pulled her into her arms she knew she wasn't dreaming.

She buried her face in Rita's shirt and wrapped her arms tightly around her neck. She whispered softly, "I love you, Rita." Rita began to cry, softly at first, holding Ava even tighter. She began to sob, not just for the relief of finding Ava but finally letting go of all the worry and anger she had felt all day but held in. Ava pulled away from her. Rita was here but she wasn't sure that meant Rita was going to let her come back home.

She seemed to read her mind. "We can talk at home." Ava smiled and took Rita's hand and walked out of the room. The man was in worse condition than when Rita had left him. He was on the floor crying and apologizing. She looked at Zac who shrugged, "he's just really sorry for what he did."

Rita didn't ask any more questions, she didn't need to. The six of them headed home to Mako. At first Rita wouldn't let go of Ava's hand, almost afraid to lose her again, but eventually let go when Ava pleaded to be able to swim with the "big" girls. When they got back to Rita's house, Ava got her chance to hug and thank everybody. Zac picked her up in his arms and Ava gave him a small kiss on the cheek. "Oh don't tell Evie!" Zac joked.

It was late and the girls headed back to the moon pool for the night, giving Ava another hug before they left. "You better be here in the morning." Nixie said before jumping into the water.

"I will." Ava said smiling.

Zac jumped into the water too, insisting that he escort Lyla back, saying it was on his way. When all the good-byes and good nights were done it was just Ava and Rita.

"I want to show you something." Rita said holding her hand out for Ava to take. She took her hadn and followed Rita up the stairs into the main part if the house. The family room and kitchen were decorated with balloons and streamers and there was a banner that said "It's a girl!" Ava was confused.

"Are you having a baby?" she asked. Rita shook her head and led Ava over to the couch where they both sat down.

"Today I was going to ask you if you wanted to stay here, with me." She paused for a moment, sentimental moments like this could be hard for her at times. "I want you and me to be a family, forever."

"forever?" Ava asked, mulling the idea over.

"Yes. I want you to stay here with me, we can be a family."

Ava didn't know what to say. "You want me?" she asked stunned. This idea was so foreign to her as her own family had left her and Cam told her she was unwanted here too.

"Yes I want you!" Rita laughed, "I love you, and I don't want to lose you! Of course this means that you can't run away anymore."

Ava smiled and threw her arms around Rita and hugged her. She pulled back for a second, "Just one more question." Ava said, the smile was gone and Rita knew it was serious.

"Anything."

"You're not going to leave me too, are you? you're not going to decide you want to go back to be in a pod too?"

"I'm not going anywhere without you." Ava hugged her again. "Hey you want to see your room?"

"I get a room?" Ava said pleasantly surprised.

"Of course that's how it works for land people." Rita took Ava upstairs and showed her the room they had all worked so hard on. "Serena, Nixie, and Lyla helped decorate it." This made Ava even more excited, she adored the older girls. She was able to pick out pieces she knew they had contributed, like Serena's shell carving. Ava had loved the one Serena made a couple of weeks ago but, she told Ava she only made them for her sister. She held it in her hands and memorized the shell. She was smiling so much her face hurt.

"I love it!" She told rita, "But if it's okay can I sleep with you tonight?"

"I would like that very much." Rita smiled.


	16. epilogue

When Ava's party was over, there was still one last thing to take care of, Cam. He had been the one to lie to Ava and cause her to run away. Rita said it was unfair to punish him too harshly. After all, he couldn't have known what Ava would do. After some debate Rita decided the best punishment for Cam should be to teach the girls a new skill. Rita showed the girls how to make a blizzard in a jar, like she first did with the lightning storm. As a test, she had the girls create a blizzard inside of Cam's bedroom. The best part was the look on Cam's face when he found his room sub 20 degrees and buried under snow.

Ava loved living in her new home. She felt like she had a family for the first time, she felt at home and she felt loved. Rita was her aunt and the girls were her cousins, although they felt more like sisters. Serena taught her mermaid songs and they often sang together. Ava wasn't nearly as good of a singer as Serena was but she loved singing with her and Serena always told her how good she was. Lyla made time to teach her mermaid things as well. She spent time teaching her about the fish and about the history of the pod. Nixie would act like spending time with Ava was a chore, but when they were alone Nixie was kind. She could act rough and tough but with Ava she was sweet and could be a push over.

However, Ava loved spending time with Rita best of all. Rita was the first person who took care of her. She felt safe with Rita and with her support she felt invincible. When she first came she was always concerned that Rita would leave her, tire of her someday maybe. But after months of reassuring her, Ava finally believed Rita wouldn't leave her.


End file.
